Thomas Cole (c.1844-48), Wikipedia [Public Domain]

The English-born American painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is famous for establishing the "Hudson River School", an art motility dedicated to romantic landscape painting, that flourished in the eye of the 19th century. The artists associated with this schoolhouse were inspired by the area around the Hudson river (that runs through New York state) as well as by the work of European artists like Claude Lorrain and J. Grand. Due west. Turner. In their paintings, the Hudson River members aimed to depict nature in a peaceful, realistic and likewise idealised way. Ruggedness existed alongside portrayals of "sublimity" (that quality of unquantifiable greatness inspiring feelings of wonder, awe and even terror). Such absorption in nature was in many means a response to the increasing industrialisation of the time.

Religion played an important role in the paintings of the Hudson River Schoolhouse. Nature was thought equally being a manifestation of the creator God, who, though transcendent, could in some way exist comprehended through earth and sky. In 1842, Thomas Cole painted a serial called The Voyage of Life, which is a Christian allegory of the human condition. These works proved valuable for the American religious revivals – the 2d (1790-1840) and the Third Great Awakening (1850-1900), during which an enthusiastic and emotional piety challenged the Enlightenment concepts of skeptical rationalism and deism (belief in a distant and indifferent God who has "retired" later making the universe; does non reply prayers and is not involved in the lives of human beings).

The Voyage of Life is a visual sermon, an openly didactic piece of work. It consists of four paintings: Babyhood, Youth, Manhood and Old Age. Cole painted two sets of the serial, one of which is at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, New York, and the other is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

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All four paintings contain v consistent elements: a male person voyager, a boat, a river, an angel (messenger and protector sent past God) and a symbolic landscape.

Childhood

An infant on a boat guarded by an angel enters a lush and tranquil Edenic environment. The figurehead on the prow holds an hourglass – showing time. The dark cave backside is emblematic of man'south mysterious origins, his unknowable past.

Childhood by Thomas Cole, Wikimedia Eatables

YOUTH

He's an energetic, excited young boy now and must give up the comfort and shelter of childhood. He is goaded by the affections to go alee alone and brand a life for himself. In the distance, he sees a castle in the sky. By can he reach it? The river twists ahead. It tin turn turbulent after a while…

Youth past Thomas Cole, Wikimedia Eatables

MANHOOD

A grown man, an adult. He must face the struggles of life. The affections is not absent-minded, just remote. The luxuriant foliage has been replaced by coarse rocks and withered trees. The man must pray ardently and bear the storms. He must persevere in this unmerciful landscape.

Manhood by Thomas Cole, Wikimedia Commons

Quondam AGE

The waters have calmed. He is nearing the end. His time is over. The angel finally leads him to his heavenly dwelling.

Old Age by Thomas Cole, Wikimedia Commons

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